CEO Summit 15 Keynotes

Elevating humanity through business

BIO:

Zeynep Ton is an adjunct associate professor at MIT Sloan School of Management and the author of The Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to Lower Costs & Boost Profits.

Zeynep’s research explores how organizations can design and manage their operations in a way that satisfies employees, customers, and investors simultaneously. Her work highlights that even in highly competitive industries, like low-cost retail, it is possible to provide good jobs to employees, good service to customers, and great returns to investors.

Prior to joining MIT Sloan, Zeynep spent seven years teaching at Harvard Business School. She teaches MBA and executive education courses in operations management, supply chain management, service operations, sustainability, and operations strategy. She received several awards for excellence in teachingboth at HBS and MIT Sloan.

A native of Turkey, Zeynep first came to the U.S. on a volleyball scholarship from the Pennsylvania State University. She received her B.S. in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University and her D.B.A. from the Harvard Business School. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband and four children.

BIO:

Jim Sinegal is the Co-Founder and Director of Costco Wholesale Corporation. He retired December 31, 2012 and is currently serving as a Company Advisor. Jim served as the Chief Executive Officer of Costco Wholesale Corp. for 27 years and has been a Director of Costco Wholesale Corp. since it’s inception.

Jim began his career in retail business in 1954. As an 18 year old college student, he went to work for the legendary retail icon Sol Price at the discount store FedMart in San Diego. Jim remained working for Price for almost 30 years before striking out on his own to start Costco with his Business Partner, Jeff Brotman.

Costco today has revenues in excess of $110 billion and operates 671 warehouses/stores in 42 states, Puerto Rico, and 9 countries. The company employs over 206,000 people worldwide and has earned the reputation as a fair and progressive employer.

Jim was named one of Business Week’s “Best Managers” in 2003. He was named Time Magazine’s 2006 list of the 100 most influential people. For 6 consecutive years from 2006 to 2011, Jim was selected as one of the 30 most respected CEO’s by Barron’s Magazine. Additionally in 2011, he was selected by Morningstar Investments as the “Outstanding CEO of the Year”.

Jim serves as Trustee for Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He is a Senior Executive in Residence at Seattle University’s Albers School and serves in a similar capacity at his alma mater, San Diego State University. Jim also serves as an advisory at the Mendoza School of Business for Notre Dame.

BIO:

With a long and varied entrepreneurial history in natural foods ranging from retailer to farmer to consultant, Walter Robb joined Whole Foods Market in 1991 and in 2010, was named co-CEO along with John Mackey at which time he joined the Whole Foods Market Board of Directors. Robb serves on the Board of Directors for both the Whole Planet Foundation and the Retail Industry Leaders Association. He also serves as Chairman of the Board for Whole Kids Foundation and Whole Cities Foundation.

Robb is an ardent organic advocate; he works his own organic garden and has served on the Board of Directors of the Organic Trade Association and the Organic Center for Education and Promotion.

He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University in 1976 and is a proud father and grandfather with two sons, a daughter, and four grandchildren.

BIO:

Apoorva Mehta is the founder & CEO of Instacart. Instacart allows customers to order their groceries from their favorite local stores and have them delivered in as little as an hour. Instacart makes this happen by leveraging a fleet of crowdsourced labor to pick and deliver groceries to the customers. In doing so, Instacart has allowed retailers of all sizes to come online and offer instant delivery to their customers for the first time in history.

Apoorva graduated from University of Waterloo with an Electrical Engineering degree. Before starting Instacart, Apoorva worked as a supply chain engineer at Amazon.com

BIO:

Ron Johnson is the founder and CEO of Enjoy, a Personal Commerce Platform designed to change the way we buy things that matter.

Ron also is the founding partner of Johnson + Partners, a Venture Partner Firm located in Menlo Park, California. Johnson + Partners is aligned with select Venture Capital and Growth Equity firms to help bring new ideas to the marketplace. Investments include Enjoy, Nasty Gal, Philz Coffee. the Melt and other technology start-ups and early stage companies.

He is the former chief executive officer of jcpenney, a former executive team member at Apple where he founded and led the company’s retail strategy and a former merchant leader at Target Corporation.

Ron earned his Bachelor of Arts from Stanford University in 1980 and his Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School in 1984.

He serves on the Stanford University Board of Trustees and as a member of the committees on Development, the Medical Center, Alumni Affairs, and Globalization. Ron also is Vice Chair of Stanford University Hospitals and Clinics. He is currently leading the Campaign for Stanford Medicine, a billion dollar plus campaign to build the new Stanford Hospital and to help Stanford lead the Biomedical Revolution through investments in research, big data, and breakthroughs in clinical care.

Ron is also a member of the University’s Arts and Humanities Advisory Council and leading an initiative to supplant the Humanities in a world increasingly dominated by Science and Engineering pursuits. Ron is married to Karen Johnson. The Johnson’s reside in Atherton, California and have two children. Elizabeth Johnson attends Northwestern University and is a student in the Class of 2017. Will Johnson attends Sacred Heart Prep Atherton and is a student in the Class of 2016.

BIO:

Randy Garutti, CEO, is responsible for the performance, excellence, profitability and direction of Shake Shack. Prior to leading Shake Shack, for eight years, Randy was a Senior Manager at Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG), most recently as Director of Operations, overseeing the operations for all USHG restaurants.

In 2006, Randy was named one of the Crain Top 40 Under 40. In addition, Randy served as General Manager of Union Square Cafe and Tabla, both of which have won numerous accolades in the hospitality industry. In January 2003, Randy was named one of the Top 50 General Managers in the country by Nation’s Restaurant News.

Before joining USHG 14 years ago, Randy was the General Manager of the acclaimed Canlis Restaurant in Seattle. Prior to that, Randy worked in various management roles with Chart House Restaurants in Aspen, CO, and Maui, HI.

Randy graduated from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration in 1997 and also studied at La Sorbonne in Paris.

BIO:

Founder, Chairman, and CEO of financial dignity empowerment nonprofit Operation HOPE, John Hope Bryant is known as one of the foremost authorities on poverty eradication. An advisor to the last four sitting U.S. presidents, a thought leader, motivational-speaker, and an innovator in the business of empowerment, John is no stranger to poverty. Born and raised in South Los Angeles, John wanted to help his community and those impacted by poverty, lack of resources and a loss of dignity.

Currently, he is serving his third term as a President’s Advisory Council member, with the appointment to the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability for Young Americans earlier this year. John is also a member of the founding class of the Young Global Leaders and was a founding member of the Clinton Global Initiative. He co-chairs Project 5117, an initiative of Operation HOPE along with Ambassador Andrew Young and Dr. Bernice King that serves as a plan for the rebirth of underserved America.

A charismatic leader, renowned public speaker and writer, John is a regular contributor as a LinkedIn Influencer, Huffington Post and American Banker. He has received over 500 awards and citations for his advocacy work, including Oprah Winfrey’s Use Your Life Award.

His new book, How the Poor Can Save Capitalism, launched June 2014 to a flurry of media attention and recognition. It has reached as high as #9 on the Amazon list, and #1 as the bestselling book on poverty, arguably the most important issue in America.

In the book, John asserts that business and political leaders are ignoring the one force that could truly re-energize the stalled American economy: the ‘poor.’ If we give the teetering class (the poor, near poor and struggling middle class) the right tools, policies and inspiration, he affirms, they will be able to lift themselves up into a stable middle class and become a new generation of customers and entrepreneurs.

BIO:

Radha is a serial social entrepreneur having founded several socially conscious companies.

She is the Founder and CEO of Super Sprowtz, a leading children’s multi-media nutrition education company whose mission is to engage children to make better food choices through storytelling, music and a proven curriculum impacting over 1 million children and counting.

She is also the co-Founder of Daybreaker, an early morning dance party for urban professionals that takes place on weekday mornings and serves coffee, tea and green juice in lieu of alcohol and replaces the monotony and often lonely gym experience for a community inspired dance party. Daybreaker has since launched in 8 cities and counting including New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Atlanta, Washington DC among others and has been featured in the NY Times, Washington Post, SNL,Wall Street Journal, Good Morning America and the Today Show among many others with a new city launching every month.

She is also the co-Founder of THINX, a women’s apparel company that provides a sustainable, patented solution for women to provide support, comfort, confidence, and peace of mind during their “time of the month” and beyond. Radha along with her co-founders Miki Agrawal (twin sister) and Antonia Dunbar teamed up with an organization in Uganda to fund reusable cloth pads to get 67 million women in Africa back in school. Buy one, fund seven. They have since helped thousands of young girls stay in school.

She was a 2013 Recipient for the Tribeca Film Festival “Disruptive Innovation Awards” and was named by Forbes Magazine as a “2013 Millenial On a Mission”.

BIO:

Seth Goldman is Co-Founder & TeaEO of Honest Tea, the company he created in 1998 with Professor Barry Nalebuff of the Yale School of Management. Today, Honest Tea is the nation’s top selling organic bottled tea, specializing in beverages that are organic, Fair Trade Certified™, and Just A Tad Sweet®. In March 2011, Honest Tea was acquired by The Coca-Cola Company, becoming the first organic and Fair Trade brand in the world’s largest beverage distribution system. The transaction has helped deepen the reach and impact of Honest Tea’s mission — Honest beverages are now carried in more than 100,000 outlets throughout the country. Seth continues to lead the enterprise out of Honest Tea’s headquarters in Bethesda, MD.

Seth is a prominent voice among mission-driven entrepreneurs. In 2014, he was recognized by the United States Healthful Food Council with a REAL Food Innovator Award for helping change the food landscape, and was named the “#1 Disruptor” by Beverage World magazine for his impact on the beverage industry.

Seth serves on the boards of the American Beverage Association, Bethesda Green, Beyond Meat, EcoLogic Solutions, and sits on the Advisory Boards of Net Impact and the Yale School of Management. In September 2013 Seth and Barry celebrated the release of their comic-book business book Mission in a Bottle – The Honest Guide to Doing Business Differently – and Succeeding, which became a New York Times Best Seller. He is a graduate of Harvard College and the Yale School of Management, and lives with his wife and three boys near Honest Tea’s Bethesda, MD headquarters in an eco-friendly house.

Kristen graduated from the University of Florida in 2010. When she was a junior in college, Kristen founded a company by mistake. What started as a way to make enough money to pay her way through school quickly turned into something bigger. Kristen had no idea that her little side project would turn into a career. At 21 she turned down a six figure job in finance to continue growing her company which now has two locations and more than 500 employees.

Kristen currently lives in Florida where she frequently guest lectures at the University of Florida. She is known for her TEDx talk “How to Retire by 20,” which has more than 1,000,000 views and she recently landed a book deal in hopes to continue spreading her message. She spends most of her time traveling the country speaking to college students about leadership and corporations about engaging millennials. Thousands of people have heard Kristen’s story to date.

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